Reception

Introduction to Fen Ditton Early Years

In Reception we work together to establish a fun-filled and stimulating environment to enable all our children to learn, grow and develop. Our ethos is that all children come into school from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, and we seek to give our children in Reception the opportunity to flourish at their own rate.

This is important for their spiritual, moral, social and cultural well-being. This is achieved through a carefully thought-out and planned curriculum, based firmly on the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile.

There are three Prime areas; Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language and Physical Development, and four Specific areas; Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding of the World and Expressive Arts and Design.

These are all planned with a child’s Characteristics of Learning and Development in mind.

Characteristics of Effective Learning (CoEL) advocate that in planning and guiding children’s activities, practitioners must reflect on the different ways that children learn, and reflect these in their practice. A child’s individual learning characteristic will determine the way they respond to both the teaching and learning taking place in the environment. Three characteristics of effective teaching and learning identified by the EYFS are:

playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’;

active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements; and

creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

The focus of the CoEL is on how children learn rather than what they learn i.e. process over outcome. Underpinning the CoEL is the understanding that during their earliest years, children form attitudes about learning that will last a lifetime.

Children who receive the right sort of support and encouragement during these years will be creative and adventurous learners throughout their lives.

Children who do not receive this sort of support and interaction are likely to have a much different attitude about learning later on in life.

Hence, why the supportive practitioner, and the environment they provide, need to nurture these CoELs to occur, but without forgetting that children are individuals who bring their own needs, talents and histories to the learning environment.

The Early Years Foundation Stage Profile has identified many aspects of how a child learns most effectively, and we at Fen Ditton Community Primary School, are continuing to develop our practice to ensure that this is at the heart of our curriculum. We use observation, assessment and data to provide realistic targets for our children to work towards, giving them a very personalised education.

Each year we have a diverse cohort, bringing with them a rich and varied experience. To enable all our children to achieve, we continue to evolve our practice to scaffold effectively each child’s potential. This has had a very positive impact on all our children, including those with English as an Additional Language.

At present we are continuing to develop our continuous provision, both inside and out, and are well on our way with exciting plans for the area. We will continue to keep you updated on our progress!